Projects

Along the migratory flyway between the Northwest Russian Arctic and West Africa, we are protecting wetlands and waterbirds by developingregional long-term wetland conservation and wise-use strategies. Our goal is to bring together people in the countries across the flyway in Africa, the EU and Russia through networking tools for wetland managers and the development of local conservation action and monitoring.

The Migratory Birds for People programme consists of more than 16 partner wetland visitor centres across Europe and West Africa, forming a network that follows the flight path of many migratory wetland birds species. These centres are working together to share best practice and develop new approaches to delivering waterbird and wetland messages to their visitors. The lead group consists of the Dutch Staatsbosbeheer, Wetland Link International, and Wetlands International. For more information visit the programme website.

The Waterbird Population Estimates (WPE) online database provides current and historic estimates, trends and 1% thresholds for over 800 waterbird species and 2300 biogeographic populations worldwide. This project has been developed by Wetlands International with the support of Environment Canada and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Visit the Waterbird Population Estimates Database

The Ramsar Conference (6 - 13 July 2012 in Bucharest, Romania) offered an opportunity to strengthen and extend the reach of the Convention to achieve improved wetland conservation and management. We attended the conference with a team of experts from our global network and engaged Contracting Parties and partners to achieve these objectives.

Many peatlands in Russia were drained for agriculture, forestry and peat mining in the past and then left abandoned. Now they are subject to wind and water erosion, major fires and cause large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. Given the significant economic, environmental and social impacts of these degraded peatlands, Wetlands International has recently initiated the restoration project of Russia's degraded peatlands.

Wetlands are the dominant ecosystem in the onshore Arctic and provide valuable services to biodiversity and communities, both local and well beyond. Wetlands in the Arctic region are fragile and recovery from disturbance is slow. The impact of a new road in the permafrost marshes may impact a much wider area for decades to come. What's more: Arctic wetlands are not well defined or understood. Wetlands International works with partners such as Shell to better understand the functions and sensitivities of Arctic wetlands, in order to improve decision-making to minimise the impacts of the oil and gas sector on onshore and coastal wetlands.

The project was aimed to increase awareness (locally and regionally) of the ecological and socio-economic functions and values of wetlands, their conservation needs and sustainable management options, through the establishment of a wetland center at the Sebezhsky National Park and the creation and publication of educational and awareness materials.

The objective is to support the sustainable use of water resources in the Moscow Region by establishing the technical, legal and social conditions for the implementation of an integrated approach to land-use planning based on wetland wise use.